In March, environmental activists filed suit against the National Marine Fisheries Service for failing to protect the dolphin species from the longline fishing fleet. False killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens) get tangled in the miles-long fishing lines trying to get to the yellowfin tuna and other delectables being caught.

“The National Marine Fisheries Service has ignored our pleas to address the slaughter of false killer whales, claiming inadequate funds, but it’s never bothered to ask Congress to appropriate the money needed to get the job done,” said Andrea Treece, senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of three environmental groups behind the federal lawsuit, in a press release.

The environmentalists noted that a December 2008 study by the General Accountability Office reported that the false killer whale is “the only marine mammal for which incidental take by commercial fisheries is above its maximum removal level that is not covered by a take reduction team.”

William Aila of Hui Mālama I Koholā, another of the groups in the lawsuit, said Hawaiian values dictate this has to change. “Mālama (to care for) and kuleana (to be responsible for) mean that we all have to take part in protecting Hawaii’s false killer whales from needless deaths in the longline fishery’s gear,” he said in a release.

The new scientific study, which appears in the April 2009 edition of Pacific Science, said that aerial surveys in 1989 showed almost four times as many of the all-black, X-foot-long false killer whales in Hawaii’s near-shore waters as more recent aerial and ship surveys. As many as 470 of the “insular” (closer-in) population were spotted 20 years ago, versus the more current high of 121.

One of the scientifc study’s authors is Robin Baird of the Cascadia Research Collective, a nonprofit based in Olympia, Wash. On its Web page on the false killer whales, which includes compelling video and photos, the research group notes that this insular population is genetically distinct from offshore false killer whales and has a history of “fidelity” to its locale. It goes on to relate:

Like the killer whale (not particularly closely related but with a very similar skull), false killer whales are long-lived (into their 60s), slow to reproduce (having one calf only every 6 or 7 years), and do not start reproducing until their teens. Thus false killer whale populations would be very slow to recover from any anthropogenic [i.e. human-caused] impacts. Also like killer whales, false killer whales are upper-trophic level predators, thus are likely to accumulate high levels of toxins and be impacted by competition with human fisheries.”

Baird told Associated Press that the data from the surveys, although perhaps not significant when taken individually, “came together to present really a much more alarming picture.” The April 3 AP story continues:

Baird suspects a combination of longline fishing, declining prey, and environmental toxins are hurting the dolphins.

False killer whales tend to get caught by longline fishing because they eat the fish fishermen have snagged for human consumption: yellowfin tuna, mahimahi, and ono.

The dolphins also have less food to eat because heavy fishing by humans has depleted stocks of yellowfin tuna and other fish they like, including mongchong, albacore tuna and swordfish.

“For far too long, the Bush administration ignored its obligation to save Hawaii’s false killer whales,” he said in a press release. “We hope the Obama administration will understand the need to address the slaughter of these unique animals quickly, before it’s too late.”

According to the March 18 article in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, the new administration is reviewing the lawsuit but did not have a comment at the time.

For another great photo of false killer whales, this one in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, click here. To see a video of false killer whales in Tenerife, see below or click here.